Fig. 1: Overview of the bioanalytical swarm ferrobotic platform for accessible, adaptable and automated viral testing.
From: Ferrobotic swarms enable accessible and adaptable automated viral testing
a, Spatiotemporal varying COVID-19 viral prevalence (based on the test positivity rate data from Our World in Data and California Health and Human Services Open Data Portal). Map generated using Visme. b, The required number of tests per person to find all infected people (across different levels of local viral prevalence), based on the square matrix pooled testing strategy. The green-highlighted curve illustrates that maximal screening efficiency can be achieved via adaptive (prevalence-based) testing. c, Optimal testing modes and the associated ferrobotic chips (scale bar, 1 cm) for the representative local viral prevalence levels of 25%, 10% and 2%. d, Overview of the automated workflows for individual and pooled testing of 16 samples. e, Exploded schematic of a representative ferrobotic viral testing platform (for example, 42 pooling). Red arrows, direction of the motion of the ferrobots and droplets. f, The ferrobotic equivalents of laboratory-based NAAT liquid handling operations, including aliquoting, merging and mixing. g, Optical image of a representative ferrobotic viral testing platform for 42 pooled testing.
